Texhnolyze

Overview

Texhnolyze takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where a portion of the population lives underground, having been sent there generations prior to the start of the show. The name Texhnolyze comes from how people are referred to who have robotic, artificial body parts.

The territory of the city is divided into a number of rival factions, each vying for total control of the city. Meanwhile, there are other, independent agents trying to upset the balance in the city as well.

Texhnolyze was an interesting anime. One of the most noticeable features is the complete lack of dialogue in many of the scenes. For example, the first half of the first episode has no dialogue at all.

At first I found this to be a drawback of the show, but once you get farther in it becomes natural and you don’t notice it because completed the mood of the anime. There are also certain characters, such as the main character, Ichise, who have very few lines of dialogue.

The biggest issue I had was that I had to watch this anime in 480p. This was made even worse by the visuals of the OP which seem to have been made even blurrier as an artistic choice.

Factions

There are three main factions which fight for control of the city, Lux. These are the Organo, the Salvation Union, and the Racan.

The Organo is essentially Lux’s version of the mafia. They have ties to an underground (literally) criminal network, while maintaining a professional appearance on the outside. They are in the business of Texhnolyzation. Onishi, one of the heads of the Organo, is the notable character from this faction.

The Salvation Union is the main rival of the Organo since they are anti-Texhnolyzation. This faction believes that Texhnolyzation is evil and that it is their mission to stop it from spreading. If the Organo is the mafia, then the Salvation Union is a heavily armed militia.

Next, there is the Racan, the smallest of the three rival factions. The Racan is more of a ragtag street gang compared to the other two factions. They don’t really have anything they do or stand for in particular, but instead they seem to just do whatever they want. Shinji is the leader of the Racan and the notable character from it.

Besides the three main factions in the city of Lux there are two other groups which are important to the story. These are the people of Gabe and the Class.

The people of Gabe live on the outskirts of the city and follow a young girl, Ran, whom they refer to as the seer. The seer is named such because of her ability to see one of many possible futures. The people of Gabe live and die by the prophecies which the seer tells them.

The Seer, Ran

The final group is known as the Class. These are a subset of the population from the surface who are the true ruling class of Lux. Some of them live on the surface, others in between Lux and the surface in a place known as the Hill, and at least one lives in the city itself. The Class is made up of highly Texhnolyzed individuals.

Conclusion

While Texhnolyze was a good anime, it was not without its issues. The final act or two seemed to stray a bit too far from the rest of the show for my taste and the ending felt a bit rushed and incomplete, although maybe that was deliberate. Overall I give Texhnolyze a 7/10.